The last burning in the reign of bloody Mary. Joy of the people at her death. Elizabeth and the Pope.

Canterbury, for denying transubstantiation and the worship of images. The names of this last company of victims who brought up the noble army of martyrs" of the Marian persecution, were John Corneford, John Hurst, Christopher Brown, Alice Snoth, and Catharine Tinley. The last was an aged and helpless woman, whose years and debility, one would have thought, might awaken pity even in the breast of a savage. But popish bigotry knows no pity; and the feeble and withered body of the aged saint was consumed to ashes in the torturing flames.

From the burning pile of this last company of martyrs, the prayer arose from the lips of the sufferers that their blood might be the last that should be thus shed, in England, for the truth; and God heard that prayer. One week after, on the 17th of November, the merciless bigot-queen was called before a higher tribunal to give an account of the innocent blood that she had poured out like water during her brief but terrible reign. Mary died in the morning. Before night the bells of all the churches in London were rung for the accession of Elizabeth, and amidst the lamentations of popish bigots that some of their victims had escaped, a shout of rapture went up from the hearts of the people that the work of blood was done; and bonfires and illuminations testified the general joy that the reign of terror and of Rome was over.

§ 15. Great was the sorrow and disappointment of that bloody persecutor and promoter of the Inquisition, pope Paul IV., at hearing of the death of his "faithful daughter," Mary, and the accession of her protestant sister Elizabeth to the throne of England. In answer to the ambassador sent to the court of Rome, in common with the other European courts, the Pope replied in a haughty style, "That England was held in fee of the apostolic See. that it was great boldness in her to assume the crown without his consent; for which, in reason, she deserved no favor at his hands; yet, if she would RENOUNCE HER PRETENSIONS, and refer herself wholly to him, he would show a fatherly affection towards her, and do everything for her that he could cONSISTENTLY WITH THE DIGNITY OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE!"*

Elizabeth treated these kind proposals of his Holiness with just the attention they merited, and a few years afterward was excommunicated and deposed by pope Pius V., and her subjects absolved from their allegiance and forbidden to obey her, under penalty of the same anathema!! This important instrument of papal vengeance renews all the obsolete pretensions of Hildebrand and Boniface, and is especially valuable as an exhibition of the feelings of approbation and regard on the part of the anti-Christian popes of Rome toward that bloody persecutor of God's saints, queen Mary; and their bitter hatred toward her sister Elizabeth, who had put an end to those scenes of horror and of blood.

The original bull, in Latin, may be found in the collection of

* Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation, vol. ii., p. 580.

Copy of the bull of pope Pius, excommunicating and deposing queen Elizabeth.

records at the end of Burnet's History of the Reformation. The following is a translation of the most important part:

66

Excommunication and deposition of queen Elizabeth of England. PIUS, &c., for a future MEMORIAL OF THE MATter. He that reign. eth on high, to whom is given all power in Heaven and on Earth, committed one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, out of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, to Peter the Prince of the Apostles, and to Peter's successor the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fullness of power. HIM ALONE HE MADE PRINCE OVER ALL PEOPLE, AND ALL KINGDOMS, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant and build, &c. But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power, that there is now no place left in the whole world, which they have not essayed to corrupt with their most wicked doctrines. Amongst others, Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England, a slave of wickedness, lending thereunto her helpinghand, with whom, as in a sanctuary, the most pernicious of all men have found a refuge; this very woman having seized on the king. dom, and monstrously usurping the place of the Supreme Head of the church in all England, and the chief authority and jurisdiction thereof, hath again brought back the same kingdom into miserable destruction, which was then newly reduced to the faith, and to good order. For having by strong hand, inhibited the exercise of THE TRUE RELIGION, WHICH MARY THE LAWFUL QUEEN, of famous memory, HAD, BY THE HELP OF THIS SEE, RESTORED, after it had been formerly overthrown by King Henry VIII., a revolter therefrom, and following and embracing the errors of heretics, she hath removed the royal council, consisting of the English nobility, and filled it with obscure men, being heretics; hath oppressed the embracers of the Roman faith, hath placed impious preachers, ministers of iniquity, and abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fastings, distinction of meats, a single life, and the rites and ceremonies; hath commanded books to be read in the whole realm, containing manifest heresy, &c. . She hath not only contemned the godly requests and admonitions of princes, concerning her healing, and conversion, but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this See to cross the seas into England, &c. We do, therefore, out of the fulness of our Apostolic power, declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being a heretic, and a favorer of heretics, and her adherence in the matter aforesaid, to have incurred the sentence of anathema, and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ. And, moreover, we do declare her to be deprived of her PRETENDED TITLE to the kingdom aforesaid, and of all dominion, dignity, and privilege whatsoever: and also the nobility, subjects, and people of the said kingdom, and all others which have in any sort sworn unto her, to be for ever absolved from any such oath, and all manner of duty, of dominion, allegiance, and obedience; as we also do, by the authority of these presents, ABSOLVe them, and do dEPRIVE THE SAME ELIZABETH OF her pretended TITLE TO THE KINGDOM, and all other things aforesaid. And we do command and interdict all and every

Original of the bull excommunicating Elizabeth-note.

The Holy Inquisition.

one of the noblemen, subjects, people, and others aforesaid, that they presume not to obey her, or her admonitions, mandates, and laws; and those who shall do the contrary, we do innodate with the like sentence of ANATHEMA.*

"Given at St. Peter's at Rome, in the year 1569, and the 5th of our pontificate."

THE

CHAPTER III.

INQUISITION.—SEIZURE

OF THE VICTIMS.-MODES OF TORTURE, AND CELEBRATION OF THE AUTO DA FÈ.

§16. Or all the inventions of popish cruelty the Holy Inquisition is the masterpiece. We have already referred to its establish ment by Saint Dominic, in the thirteenth century. For the history of this destructive engine of papal cruelty, we must refer to any, or all of the authentic works of Llorente, Puigblanch, Limborch, Stockdale, Geddes, Dellon, and other historians of the Inquisition. All that we shall undertake will be a brief description of the treatment, tortures, and burnings of the unfortunate beings who writhed under its iron rod of oppression. The adjoining engraving represents an exterior view of one of the gloomy prisons of the Inquisition in that country, which, more than any other, has been oppressed and crushed by this horrid tribunal, unhappy Spain. It is copied from a drawing taken on the spot by David Roberts, Esq.

It was impossible for even Satan himself to conceive a more horrible contrivance of torture and blood, than this so called Holy

*The following is the original of the closing extract of this bull, deposing Elizabeth from her throne. We should hardly have believed that the mad pretensions of Hildebrand were thus revived by the Pope near the end of the sixteenth century, and half a century subsequent to the glorious reformation, were not the original documents at hand, and the fact beyond the shadow of a doubt:-" Declaramus de Apostolicæ potestatis plenitudine, prædictam Elizabetham Hæreticam, et Hæreticorum fautricem, eique adherentes in prædictis, anathematis sententiam incurrisse, esseque a Christi Corporis unitate præcisos: Quin etiam ipsam prætenso Regni prædicti jure, necnon omni et quorumque Dominio, dignitate, privilegioque privatam; Et item proceres, subditos et populos dicti Regni, ac cæteros omnes, qui illi quomodocunque juraverunt a Juramento hujusmodi, ac omni prorsus dominii, fidelitatis, et obsequii debito, perpetuo absolutos, prout nos illos præsentium authoritate absolvimus, et privamus eandem Elizabetham prætenso jure Regni, aliiisque omnibus supradictis. Præcipimusque et interdicimus Universis et singulis Proceribus, Subditis, Populis et aliis prædictis; ne illi, ejusve monitis, mandatis, et legibus audeant obedire: Qui secus egerint, eos simili Anathematis sententia innodamus.”—Burnet's Reformation, vol. iv., p. 99.